WND

Teacher fighting district's 'gender confusion' policy

Orders to use 'preferred' names sparks fight over faith

An Indiana school teacher is fighting to get his job back, claiming he was forced to resign because he objected to his district’s “gender confusion” policy, which requires teachers to address students by their “preferred” names rather than their legal names.

The teacher, John Kluge, contends the policy at Brownsburg High School violates his constitutionally protected religious beliefs, encouraging behavior the Bible condemns.

“I’m being compelled to encourage students in what I believe is something that’s a dangerous lifestyle,” he told the Indianapolis Star. “I’m fine to teach students with other beliefs, but the fact that teachers are being compelled to speak a certain way is a scary thing.”

“Indiana’s Brownsburg High School doesn’t want good teachers. It wants politically correct ones. And administrators will do anything – including forcing out Christians – to get them,” FRC said.

“When John Kluge was told he had to start addressing kids by their ‘preferred’ names, he went straight to the school’s administrators. A child may be struggling with their gender identity, but he couldn’t in good conscience encourage them down that dangerous path. The two sides compromised, telling John he could call the students by their last names instead. After several months, though, the school reneged, insisting he had to comply or resign,” the FRC commentary said.

With no real choice but to lose his job or violate his religious beliefs, he gave notice.

“They’re acting as if I have [resigned], even though I’m pleading, ‘No,'” he told the Star.

FRC said Kluge has requested a meeting with the school board Monday with the hope of being reinstated.

“If he is, he’ll have the support of plenty of Brownsburg families. Pastor Jim Bohrer, whose daughter is one of Kluge’s students, says Kluge has always been well-liked and respectful,” FRC said.

“No one — let alone a teacher looking out for his students’ best interest – should be forced to choose between his career and his convictions!”

FRC said the board’s perspective is “not just scary,” it’s “damaging.”

“Encouraging this kind of gender confusion is ‘child abuse,’ the American College of Pediatricians has warned. ‘When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such,'” FRC said.

“Not to mention, the experts go on, that this is typically a phase that most children grow out of. ‘As many as 98 percent of gender confused boys and 88 percent of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty,'” the report said.

The Indianapolis paper said advocates for the LGBTQ community contend using a person’s preferred name is an issue of respect, not religion or politics.

School officials declined comment, the report said.

Under Barack Obama’s transgender agenda, the Department of Education instructed public schools to let transgender students use the bathroom or locker room of their choice, meaning a boy who says he’s a girl would be allowed to shower with girls.

The Trump administration reversed the policy soon after Trump took office, but some schools continued to enforce the Obama policy.